Stefano Demiliani WeBlog

Microsoft plans to compete with Linux

I've just read an interesting interview with Martin Taylor, Microsoft's general manager of platform strategies, that describes plans to compete with Linux.

In this interview he discusses the lessons Microsoft is learning from customer interest in open source and how the company may ultimately respond.

The point that are interesting for me are the answer to these questions:

• Where do you see Linux being successful today? ANSWER: Definitely on the edge. You're just seeing edge services continue, such as firewall, appliances and those types of devices.
• Do you worry that Linux will gain more traction at the edge because of security concerns about Windows?: ANSWER: Security is one of those workloads where Linux is getting traction, partly because we don't have a firewall appliance offering today.

I don't agree totally with Martin, because for me Linux now is not only an edge OS... with security aspects I think it's better then Windows now, and today Linux is more simple to configure, so it could be a good choice also for desktop market.

I agree with Martin about the Open Source Community... I'm a fan of Open Source, but I agree that open source doesn't mean a better level of quality in code.

However, read the entire interview... it's really interesting.